Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Hey! It's the Fall Leagues!

Sure, we could focus on the Fall Classic, but seeing as how we've already established that every victory or success for the Rays is like a dagger in our heart, we figured we'd divert our attention to the developmental Fall Leagues for a bit of solace.

Say "hi" to Thomas Magnum if you see himWhile many of the higher-level prospects are congregating under the Arizona sun to play before a crowd of mid-western retirees, Jays prospect Bradley Emaus (picture above) got the call to play for the Honolulu Sharks of the Hawaii Winter Baseball League. (We guess that isn't a Fall League per se...) Major League Bastian has the write up on the 22 year-old infielder who played with Single-A Dunedin last year. Bastian also catches up with some of the other Jays in the Fall Leagues.

Emaus is currently hitting .342 (with a .960 OPS) in 13 games so far this year with a double, a triple and a homer to go with his 9 RsBI.

A cool thing about the Hawaii League: it combines North American minor leaguers with players from Japan and Korea. In fact, a quick look at the league's Japanese alumni shows just how many current MLBers made a name for themselves in this circuit. Ichiro, Tadahito Iguchi, Kaz Matsui, and So Taguchi all suited up at one point or another.

And how can you not love a league with a team named the Waikiki Beach Boys.

The other J.P. puts on a show for the high-waisted shuffleboard sharksOnce again, the tireless Major League Bastian reports that after a slow start, the Jays' other great minor league hope J.P. Arencibia has started to hit for the Pheonix Desert Dogs. Over a six game hitting streak this past week, the other J.P. has a homer and eight driven in.

Another relevant prospect in Phoenix is Scott Campbell, who is getting on base at a .500 clip through 10 games thus far. Perhaps more interesting is the fact that New Zealand's finest baseball product has been playing some games at third base. Does this mean that the Jays may be looking at him to replace Scott Rolen in 2010?